This is crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world

At high speed, a car rushes along the California road, behind the wheel of which is the criminal "Smiler" Grogan hiding from the police. At one of the turns, the car takes off from the road and crashes. Four cars drive up to the aid of a dying driver, in which businessman Russell Finch and his wife and mother-in-law drive, dentist Melville Kramp and his wife, two friends Dingi Bell and Benji Benjamin, who are heading to Las Vegas , and the driver of the furniture van Lenny Pike. Before his death, Grogan says that in the park of the city of Santa Rosita, under "big W ", he hid 350,000 dollars. From this moment, drivers who have learned the secret of the buried treasure, try to catch the Santa Rosita before anyone else. During the "race", participants use various vehicles (from bicycles to airplanes), while building obstacles to each other. In pursuit of new participants: the English rocket officer Hottorn, the son of Mrs. Marcus Sylvester, a certain Otto Mayer and - already in Santa Rosita - two local taxi drivers.

The state police, represented by Captain Culpeper, are in full control of the situation, but he orders not to intervene. Servants of the law even begin to bet - who will reach the goal first. Culpeper is unhappy that the authorities do not want to raise his pension, and decides to take Grogan’s money for himself. The race participants get to the park at about the same time and find out that the “W” are four crossed palm trees, under which the treasure is buried. At that moment, Culpeper appears in the park. Using his official position, he takes the money and tries to hide, but the other participants in the chase do not allow him to leave. Culpeper’s colleagues understand that he decided to appropriate the money, and are forced to arrest him. After the chase and fight on the fire escape of a high-rise building, no one gets the money from the suitcase - they are carried by the wind.

The characters meet the ending of the picture in the trauma department of the hospital - all are in the same room. The bandaged Culpeper sadly says that he lost his family and pension, and now he, as a police officer who abused his powers, will also be punished most severely. Other treasure seekers refuse his sympathy. Then Mrs. Marcus comes into the room with the other women to visit the patients - and slips on a banana peel. All the characters burst into laughter, including Culpeper.

Leading Roles

• Spencer Tracy - Captain T.J. Culpeper
• Sid Cesar - Dentist Melville Crump
• Edie Adams - Monica Crump, wife of Melville
• Mickey Rooney - Dingi Bell
• Buddy Hackett - Benji Benjamin
• Phil Silvers - Unemployed Pianist Otto Meyer
• Jonathan Winters - Truck Driver Lenny Pike
• Terry Thomas - Lt. Col. J. Algernon Hawthorne
• Milton Burle - J. Russell Finch
• Ethel Merman - Mrs. Marcus, mother-in-law of Russell Finch
• Dorothy Provine - Emeline Marcus Finch, wife of Russell Finch
• Dick Shawn - Sylvester Marcus, son of Mrs. Marcus and brother Emeline

Minor Roles

• Eddie Anderson - Taxi Driver
• Jim Bakus - The Drunken Owner Of Aircraft Tyler Fitzgerald
• William Demarest - Santa Rosita Police Chief (Eloysius)
• Jimmy Durante - Smiler Bank Robber Grogan
• Peter Falk - Taxi Driver
• Barry Chase - Sylvester Marcus's girlfriend
• Paul Ford - Colonel Wilberforce

In episodes

• Buster Keaton - Jimmy Boatman
• Jerry Lewis is the man who rides on Culpepper's hat
• Seizu Pitts - Gerty, a police phone operator
• Leo Gorsi is a taxi driver bringing Melville and Monica to the hardware store.
• Mike Mazurki - a miner taking medicine for his wife
• Karl Rainer - Rancho Conejo Airport Tower Manager
• Sterling Holloway - Fire Chief Santa Rosita
• Joe Derita - Firefighter (uncredited)
• Charles McGraw - Lieutenant Matthews of the Santa Rosita Police Department
• Jack Benny - a man in the desert in a small car

The film was the first to be shot on the new version of the panoramic cinema system " Cinerama " ("Ultra Cinerama") with one wide film instead of the usual three. The original negative was shot on a wide-angle frame “Ultra Panavision 70” ( Eng. Ultra Panavision 70 ) with optical anamorphic , and film copies were printed on a 70-mm film. For this reason, the image has a very large aspect ratio of 2.76: 1, superior to most widescreen systems ^[4] . The picture was shown both in large-format cinemas and in cinemas designed for the Cinerama system with a very large cylindrical screen. In the latter case, pre-emphasis was introduced into the image of the film copy, compensating for the projection onto a strongly curved screen ^[5] .

• 1964 - Academy Award for best sound editing (Walter Elliott), as well as 5 nominations: best film music (Ernest Gold), best song ("It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World" composer Ernest Gold, words Mack David), best cinematography of a color film (Ernest Laszlo), best editing (Frederick Knudtson, Robert S. Jones, Gene Fowler Jr.), best sound (Gordon Sawyer)
• 1964 - 2 nominations for the Golden Globe Award: best film - comedy or musical, best male role - comedy or musical (Jonathan Winters)
• 1965 - Edgar Allan Poe Award nomination for Best Movie (William Rose, Tanya Rose)

• "Rat race"
• " The incredible adventures of Italians in Russia "

The scene with a treasure under a strange-shaped palm tree, which many different people are hunting for, completes the eleventh episode of the fifth season of the animated series "The Simpsons". The episode also contains other quotes from the film.

• “This Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, Crazy World” on the Internet Movie Database
• “This crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy world” (English) on allmovie  
• Movie Review at variety.com